Through his many career moves -- including a stint as mayor of Carmel, Calif. -- Eastwood has consistently looked for opportunities to expand the audience for jazz.

Growing up in Oakland, Eastwood began playing piano to impress the girls. As a youth, he attended as many live jazz performances as he could -- including performances by Charlie Parker. While jazz obviously takes center stage in the Eastwood-directed film Bird, it is also prominent in the soundtracks for many more of his films, such as The Bridges of Madison County and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Clint Eastwood directed the Piano Blues documentary featured in Martin Scorsese's PBS series The Blues. He served as producer for the Thelonius Monk documentary Straight, No Chaser. The concert film and album Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall showcased such players as Kenny Barron, Barry Harris, Jimmy Scott, Jay McShann, Jon Faddis, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, James Rivers, James Carter, Flip Phillips and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

Clint Eastwood is the 2003 recipient of The Henry Mancini Institute's Hank Award, which recognizes distinguished service to American Music. His son, Kyle, is a jazz bassist.

Check out this week's Piano Jazz Shorts: the Piano Jazz podcast.
Subscribe!

Set List for Clint Eastwood on Piano Jazz:

Misty (J. Burke, E. Garner)

Now's the Time (C. Parker)

Doe Eyes (C. Eastwood, L. Niehaus)

Claudia's Theme (C. Eastwood, L. Niehaus)

Singin' the Blues (D. Fields, J. McHugh)

Portrait of Clint Eastwood (McPartland)

Clint and Marian Blues (McPartland, Eastwood)